Many people consider 3D printing to be a rather slow, drawn out process. And there are any number of reasons for wanting to get your completed print outs faster.
If you’re turning them over for profit, then time is money, and the more you can do in one day the more profit you can make. Or if you’re making toys and/models with your kids, I can imagine their eagerness, and perhaps lack of patience.
The good news is that there are some 3D printers which are quite fast compared to the first batch of 3D printers that came on the scene. We’ve had a good look at what’s out there right now, and we’ve handpicked our Top 5 picks of the fastest 3D printers on the market. We’ll show you our reviews on these shortly.
After that we’ve got a really handy buying guide for you which explains what makes for a fast 3D printer, and this should help guide your decision as to what 3D printer you want to buy. Within this buyer guide, we also tackle some of your most frequently asked questions.
In the interest of brevity, we’ve concentrated this article on 3D printers you can use at home, school or for a home based business, and we’ve not included any industrial sized 3D printers.
You may notice that our Top 5 picks are predominantly resin 3D printers. That is because these are generally much faster than FDM printers. More on that in our buying guide.
Also in our product selection, we’ve looked at printers that offer great speed without compromising the print quality, because it’s no good having a really fast 3D printer if the print quality isn’t up to standard.
It’s worth noting at this point that the products selected are ordered according to customer approval as opposed to being ordered according to which is fastest.
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Fastest 3D Printer - Comparison Table
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Fastest 3D Printer - Reviews
This is the latest 2020 resin 3D printer from Qidi Tech.
It’s a faster slicing, fast printing machine, that also offers high precision.
It’s recommended print speed is 20mm/h, which we think is quite reasonable, considering it produces printouts as accurate as 0.00125mm on the z axis and with an XY resolution of 0.047mm.
It’s impressive accuracy and smooth finishes are achieved, at least in part, by using a particularly stable structure in the printing process, and that makes all the difference.
The curing process carried out by way of the matrix ultraviolet light is also quite fast, and it also improves the print accuracy at the same time.
The printout dimensions are 245mm (L) x 230mm (W) x 420MM (H), which is plenty big enough for making most miniatures and models.
For such a good quality resin 3D printer, it’s also very friendly on the wallet, costing less than $250 despite being such a relatively new model.
Another thing we love about this printer, and the brand, is that they have an excellent after sales service. Anything that’s not working out so well for you, get in touch with them, and they will get back to you, that same day.
The QIDI TECH Shadow 5.5 S made Amazon’s best seller list for the category, and after well over 100 individual customer ratings, the average Amazon customer rating comes in at a very reassuring 4 and a half stars out of a possible 5.
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Here’s another great resin 3D printer.
It uses fast slicing software, and takes just one minute to slice a 30M stl file. And that’s pretty fast if you ask us - most open source slicing software would take several minutes to slice the same size file. And of course fast slicing means you get your complete printouts faster.
Also, the LED light source allows even light distribution, which also helps you get your printouts faster.
And for the really eager/impatient, you can monitor the print status in real time.
Better yet though, you can print multiple models onto a build late, so if your printouts are small enough, you can print two models in the time it would normally take to print one.
But that’s not all it has to offer. You get fantastic precision with a Z axis resolution of 0.0000492 inches. That’s far better than what you’d get with an FDM printer.
This printer is quite wallet friendly, being an entry level model, and costs under $300. It provides excellent value for money.
And as an entry level printer, it’s also very easy to set up and use and is great for beginners.
The maximum print dimensions are 4.52″ x 2.56″ x 6.1″, which we would argue is a good volume for an entry level 3D printer.
At the time of writing this article the average Amazon customer rating on this printer was a full five stars out of 5 - how good is that!
You get a full year’s warranty with this printer, and the manufacturer is happy to take questions if you ever wanted to raise any.
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Here’s another great resin 3D printer with fast slicing software.
The machine comes with the latest version of CHITUBOX Slicing Software, and let us tell you CHITUBOX software is a great price of kit. Not only does it offer a great user experience, but it’s slicing is also super fast. CHITUBOX takes only 1 minute to slice 30Mb .stl model files, whereas most open source slicing software might take up to 10 minutes to slice the exact same file!
It also offers high precision and resolution, with an XY axis resolution of 0.00185inches / 0.047mm. So you don’t have to compromise on print quality with your fast printing 3D printer.
The maximum print volume measures 120 x 68 x 155mm, which is about standard for resin printers at this price range.
Speaking of which, it’s a very budget friendly printer, with a price point of under $250, which is a good price for those just starting out in 3D printing.
It comes with a full year’s machine warranty, and customers are free to contact the manufacturer about either the machine or the software if you have anything you want to ask.
Customer feedback has been very positive. It’s been flying off the shelves at Amazon, where it features amongst their best sellers. After well over 1000 individual customer ratings, the average Amazon customer rating comes in at 4 and a half stars out of 5, which goes to show just how good it is.
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We’ve got another good all rounder for your 3D printing needs.
Once again we’ve picked a resin printer because these are the fastest as well as being more accurate.
A larger miniature will take about 2 to 3 hours to print on this beauty, but better yet you can print multiple models at the same time if they’re small enough, meaning you could potentially print up to 6 models in the same time you would take to print just one. Or for more specific specs, it prints at 20 to 30 mm/h.
At under $300, you get an entry level price tag, but you get professional quality. The print layers are so fine that they can't be noticed by the naked eye. And you get a far better printout than you would with an FDM printer.
It has a decent maximum print volume, coming in at 4.52″ x 2.56″ x 6.1″.
Customer feedback has been very positive. It’s been flying off the shelves at Amazon, where it features amongst their best sellers. After well over 1000 individual customer ratings, the average Amazon customer rating comes in at 4 and a half stars out of 5, which goes to show just how good it is.
And the after sales service is superb, with lifetime technical support on demand.
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And yet gain, here’s another great resin printer available at a great price.
There are two different printers on the link to the Amazon page, with the Orange 30 offering the best specs, which is the one we’re zooming in on here.
There are a number of factors that go into making it such a fast printer. There’s fast curing, thanks to the Uniform Matrix UV Lighting, and there’s fast slicing, thanks to Longer’s own self-developed slicing software. This software can slice a 100M stl fine in just one minute, which is over 3 times faster than most other resin printers! Or for more specific specs, it prints at 30 mm/h.
It’s also fast cooling too, with a High Temperature Warning System which is a great safety feature and at the same time also helps prolong the lifespan of the printer.
It offers great precision and resolution, coming in at 0.01-0.1mm layer thickness, and 2560 x 1440 LCD Screen Resolution. So you get a nice smooth surface on your printouts.
The Orange 30 has a great maximum print volume, coming in at 4.72 x 2.68x 6.69 inches
Again, it’s an affordable machine, costing under $300, which is the cheaper end of the 3D printer cost spectrum.
It’s also an Amazon best seller and has seen some very positive feedback from customers, with an average Amazon customer rating of 4 and a half stars out of a possible 5.
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Fastest 3D Printer - Buyers Guide
What type of 3D printer is fastest, FDM or resin?
As a general rule, resin 3D printers, including DLP, LCD and SLA printers, are often significantly faster than FDM 3D printers.
And whilst FDM can at times be set to print faster than SLA, there’s a significant trade-off between print speed and print quality.
To speed up the building process, for example, you can choose to print thicker layers with your FDM printer, and more sparse infill, to reduce print times, but in doing so you don’t get that much coveted fine detail, and it just wouldn’t be worth it.
However, resin printing has more post-processing steps than FDM, like curing, so although a resin printer will print faster, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will always get your completed printout faster.
It’s worth noting at this point however, that you can often make multiple prints at any one time with a resin printer, so you can get more than one printout in the time it would normally take to print just one. This could potentially double or triple how quickly you could print out several models of the same small design.
What affects the speed of a 3D printer?
There are a number of different factors that can influence the speed at which you get your 3D printout, and they are (in no particular order):
- Material being used
- Size of the printer
- Size of the part/model
- Complexity of print design
- Software being used
What to look for in a 3D printer?
Of course, if you’re reading this article, you’re looking for a 3D printer that’s fast. But that really should not by your sole or even your first consideration. What good is a fast printout if it doesn’t have a good print quality. You should not, in our opinion at least, choose speed over precision and accuracy.
Besides speed, precision and accuracy, you should also consider whether your 3D printer is fit for purpose. And a number of factors come under this umbrella term.
Before you decide what 3D printer you want to buy, you of course have to decide what type of printer you want e.g. FDM or resin.
You should also have an idea of what size of printouts you want to make, so you can determine what maximum printout dimensions you may need.
You should also establish a budget. This is because many 3D printers only have a one year warranty. So if you think you might have to shell out for another 3D printer in one year’s time, it doesn’t make sense to pay over the odds for an item when you may not necessarily get a particularly long lifespan out of it.
We also strongly recommend that you look at customer feedback on the printer you buy. This is because there are a lot of 3D printers out on the market today, in both FDM and resin, and they are not all created equally, and they differ very considerably in how well they perform.
And we’ll level with you here, sometimes even Amazon’s best selling 3D printers don't always have good customer ratings. But if you have a look at the 3D printers in our Top 5 picks, you will find that they all have decent customer ratings on the Amazon page. Amazon has a great customer review system in place, and we encourage you to take advantage of that. Look before you leap, as they say.